Most children in the village where we live have never seen a computer before. There isn't a single computer in our village, as the internet is far too expensive and the capabilities of a computer are completely unknown. A few of the people in the village have e-mail addresses that they check monthly, or whenever they can get to a computer with a broadband connection.For this reason, my most rewarding trip to the nearest internet cafe came last Friday afternoon, when I spent an hour teaching a 12 year old girl named Adwoa (the same girl whose parents invited me to dinner Wednesday, see "How to Eat Banku") about the parts of the computer, and how to type in Microsoft Word.
Watching her react to the appearance of letters on the screen that coincided with her pressing 'keys' was magical. I let her type whatever she could, in English and then in her local language, and then printed a picture of her using the computer, with the words "My name is Adwoa, I am 12 years old, I live in Marfokrom," printed below. She tucked the printout neatly into her bag, and told me she couldn't wait to show her mother.
The internet will soon spread to more and more parts of Ghana, which will quickly close the knowledge and development gap, as more use it for learning, studying current events, and accessing the global marketplace. To take just one example, our 'counterparts' who we are assisting sew quilts that they eventually sell on e-bay to Americans for a price four-times what they would sell for in Ghana. With this in mind, I'm convinced iSolutions are coming to Ghana very soon. But for Adwoa, typing for an hour alone was an overwhelming introduction to the magic of computers.
